Adani Group shares fell sharply on Thursday (November 21) morning, after billionaire Gautam Adani was accused by US authorities of his involvement in an alleged years-long scheme to pay $250 million in bribes to Indian officials to secure favorable terms on solar power contracts.
The combined market capitalization of all Adani Group listed companies fell by Rs 2.45 lakh crore today amid the bribery scandal. Some of the group companies have also reached their lower trading limit for the day.
Meanwhile, shares of PSU banks also fell with the Nifty PSU Bank index down 5 percent on Thursday morning. The reason for this is that banks and NBFCs accounted for about 36 percent of Adani Group’s total debt. Together they have an exposure of over Rs 88,000 crore. Three major banks of the country (SBI, PNB, Bank of Baroda) have given loans of over Rs 40,000 crore to Adani. Apart from this, Bank of India, Canara Bank, and Union Bank also have exposure. At the same time, there is some exposure to private banks like Axis Bank, ICICI, and HDFC Bank.
PSU banks have Rs 39,380 crore exposure to the Adani group
SBI: Rs 27,000 crore
Bank of Baroda (BoB): Rs 5,380 crore
Punjab National Bank (PNB): Rs 7,000 crore
PSU Bank shares
SBI shares fell by more than five percent today, BoB shares fell by eight percent while PNB shares fell by nearly five percent today. Shares of Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank also fell on the Adani news today.
Looking into the Adani bribery case
U.S. prosecutors have accused Adani, 62, his nephew Sagar, and other defendants of paying more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials between 2020 and 2024 to secure solar power contracts worth more than $2 billion.
This, they said, was hidden from American banks and investors from whom the Adani group had received billions of dollars for this project.
However, an Adani spokesperson denied the charges, describing the allegations made by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission against Adani Green directors as “baseless”.
US law allows pursuing foreign corruption allegations if they involve specific links to American investors or markets.
